Israeli strikes destroy last plane at Yemen's Sanaa airport
The plane was about to be boarded by Muslim pilgrims bound for the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
30 May 2025 10:45am
A destroyed airplane lies on the tarmac at Sanaa International Airport on May 29, 2025, in the aftermath of an Israeli military strike. Israeli air strikes blew up the last remaining plane at Yemen's international airport, Israel and a Yemeni official said on May 28, 2025. - (Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP)
SANAA - Israeli air strikes blew up the last remaining plane at rebel-held Yemen's international airport, Israel and a Yemeni official said on Wednesday, weeks after an earlier attack inflicted major damage.
An air raid involving multiple strikes hit the Yemenia Airways plane and the runway at Sanaa airport, the Huthi rebels' Al-Masirah TV channel posted on X, decrying "Israeli aggression".
Thick black smoke was seen billowing from a stricken plane on the tarmac, in a video posted on X by Sanaa airport director Khaled al-Shaief who said it was Yemenia's last operational aircraft.
The airport had only resumed limited commercial services on May 17, according to Huthi authorities, after it was closed by a heavy Israeli attack that destroyed six planes 11 days earlier.
The Huthis, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians, have been firing on Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, prompting reprisal strikes from Israel as well as the United States and Britain.
Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said fighter jets targeted Huthi "terror targets" at the airport, a day after the group fired two projectiles at Israel.
"Air Force jets have just struck terror targets of the Huthi terrorist organisation at the airport in Sanaa and destroyed the last aircraft remaining," he said in a statement.
An Israeli military statement said aircraft there "were used by the Huthi terrorist organisation for the transfer of terrorists who advanced terrorist attacks against the state of Israel".
According to a statement from Yemenia, the plane was about to be boarded by Muslim pilgrims bound for the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Destroyed airplanes lie on the tarmac at Sanaa International Airport on May 29, 2025, in the aftermath of an Israeli military strike. Israeli air strikes blew up the last remaining plane at Yemen's international airport, Israel and a Yemeni official said on May 28, 2025. - (Photo by MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP)
- 'Fragile situation' -
The Huthis began their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, prompting British and US military strikes beginning in January 2024.
Earlier this month, the United States agreed a ceasefire with the Huthis, ending weeks of intense American strikes on rebel-held areas.
However, the Huthis have continued to fire frequent projectiles at Israel, including strikes targeting Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. Earlier this month, Israel threatened to target the Huthi leadership.
United Nations special envoy Hans Grundberg warned in a statement that clashes between the Huthis and Israel are "exacerbating an already very fragile situation for Yemen and the region".
The Huthis had earlier paused their attacks during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza that collapsed in March.
The rebels have been at war with a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in a conflict that has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and triggered a major humanitarian crisis in Yemen, although fighting has decreased significantly since a UN-negotiated six-month truce in 2022.
That year the airport, closed for six years during the war, reopened to commercial flights and has offered services to and from Amman in Jordan. - AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Lebanon says one killed in Israeli strike on south
BEIRUT: Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike on the south of the country Sunday killed one person, the third deadly raid in four days despite a ceasefire with Hezbollah. The ministry said an 'Israeli enemy' strike targeted a motorcycle in the village of Arnoun, in the Nabatieh region about five kilometres (three miles) from the Israeli border. Farther south, another strike hit a car in Beit Lif, in the Bint Jbeil area, wounding one person, the ministry said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has continued to strike Lebanon despite the ceasefire that took effect on November 27, ending more than a year of conflict -- including two months of open war -- with militant group Hezbollah, which emerged severely weakened. On Thursday, two people were killed in Israeli strikes on the south, and another died in a raid on Saturday. Under the truce terms, Hezbollah fighters were to withdraw north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres from the border, and dismantle their military posts to the south. Israel, for its part, was to pull all its troops out of Lebanon but has maintained five positions it deems 'strategic' along the frontier. The Lebanese army has since deployed in those areas, where it is the only force allowed to operate alongside UN peacekeepers.
New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Myanmar junta extends ceasefire again after quake
YANGON: Myanmar's junta has extended a post-earthquake truce, after the expiry of a previous humanitarian ceasefire it was accused of flouting with a continued campaign of air strikes. The junta initially declared a truce in the many-sided civil war after a huge quake in late March killed nearly 3,800 people and left tens of thousands homeless. The truce has been extended before, although conflict monitors say fighting has continued, including regular air strikes. A statement from the junta information team on Saturday said there would be an extension of the armistice – which expired May 31 – until June 30. This would "facilitate rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in earthquake-affected areas", it said in the statement. It added that the state was "intensively engaging in reconstruction of damaged government offices and departments, public residences and transport facilities." The ceasefire would also allow the country to hold "a free and fair multi-party democracy general election", according to the statement. The country's junta chief said earlier this year that a long-promised election will be held by January, the first in the war-torn nation since the military staged a coup in 2021. In the statement, the military also warned it would still strike back against any offensives by the array of ethnic armed groups and anti-coup fighters. The announcement comes after Malaysian foreign minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan used a regional meeting last week to call for the extension and expansion of a ceasefire "beyond the currently affected zones." Malaysia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). The bloc has led so far fruitless diplomatic efforts to end Myanmar's conflict since the junta deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.--AFP
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Myanmar junta extends ceasefire again after quake
A man looks inside a school building damaged in a bombardment carried out by Myanmar's military at the Ohe Htein Twin village in Tabayin township, Sagaing Region, on May 12, 2025. The junta said there would be an extension of the armistice until June 30. - AFP YANGON: Myanmar's junta has extended a post-earthquake truce, after the expiry of a previous humanitarian ceasefire it was accused of flouting with a continued campaign of air strikes. The junta initially declared a truce in the many-sided civil war after a huge quake in late March killed nearly 3,800 people and left tens of thousands homeless. The truce has been extended before, although conflict monitors say fighting has continued, including regular air strikes. A statement from the junta information team on Saturday said there would be an extension of the armistice - which expired May 31 - until June 30. This would "facilitate rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in earthquake-affected areas", it said in the statement. It added that the state was "intensively engaging in reconstruction of damaged government offices and departments, public residences and transport facilities". The ceasefire would also allow the country to hold "a free and fair multi-party democracy general election", according to the statement. The country's junta chief said earlier this year that a long-promised election will be held by January, the first in the war-torn nation since the military staged a coup in 2021. In the statement, the military also warned it would still strike back against any offensives by the array of ethnic armed groups and anti-coup fighters. The announcement comes after Malaysian foreign minister Mohamad Hasan used a regional meeting last week to call for the extension and expansion of a ceasefire "beyond the currently affected zones". Malaysia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the ten-country ASEAN. The bloc has led so far fruitless diplomatic efforts to end Myanmar's conflict since the junta deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. - AFP
